登陆注册
15446400000001

第1章 Chapter NIGHT ON THE BEACH(1)

Throughout the island world of the Pacific, scattered men of many European races and from almost every grade of society carry activity and disseminate disease. Some prosper, some vegetate. Some have mounted the steps of thrones and owned islands and navies. Others again must marry for a livelihood; a strapping, merry, chocolate-coloured dame supports them in sheer idleness; and, dressed like natives, but still retaining some foreign element of gait or attitude, still perhaps with some relic (such as a single eye-glass) of the officer and gentleman, they sprawl in palm-leaf verandahs and entertain an island audience with memoirs of the music-hall. And there are still others, less pliable, less capable, less fortunate, perhaps less base, who continue, even in these isles of plenty, to lack bread.

At the far end of the town of Papeete, three such men were seated on the beach under a purao tree.

It was late. Long ago the band had broken up and marched musically home, a motley troop of men and women, merchant clerks and navy officers, dancing in its wake, arms about waist and crowned with garlands. Long ago darkness and silence had gone from house to house about the tiny pagan city. Only the street lamps shone on, making a glow-worm halo in the umbrageous alleys or drawing a tremulous image on the waters of the port. A sound of snoring ran among the piles of lumber by the Government pier. It was wafted ashore from the graceful clipper-bottomed schooners, where they lay moored close in like dinghies, and their crews were stretched upon the deck under the open sky or huddled in a rude tent amidst the disorder of merchandise.

But the men under the purao had no thought of sleep. The same temperature in England would have passed without remark in summer; but it was bitter cold for the South Seas.

Inanimate nature knew it, and the bottle of cocoanut oil stood frozen in every bird-cage house about the island; and the men knew it, and shivered. They wore flimsy cotton clothes, the same they had sweated in by day and run the gauntlet of the tropic showers; and to complete their evil case, they had no breakfast to mention, less dinner, and no supper at all.

In the telling South Sea phrase, these three men were ON THE

BEACH. Common calamity had brought them acquainted, as the three most miserable English-speaking creatures in Tahiti; and beyond their misery, they knew next to nothing of each other, not even their true names. For each had made a long apprenticeship in going downward; and each, at some stage of the descent, had been shamed into the adoption of an alias. And yet not one of them had figured in a court of justice; two were men of kindly virtues; and one, as he sat and shivered under the purao, had a tattered Virgil in his pocket.

Certainly, if money,could have been raised upon the book, Robert Herrick would long ago have sacrificed that last possession; but the demand for literature, which is so marked a feature in some parts of the South Seas, extends not so far as the dead tongues; and the Virgil, which he could not exchange against a meal, had often consoled him in his hunger. He would study it, as he lay with tightened belt on the floor of the old calaboose, seeking favourite passages and finding new ones only less beautiful because they lacked the coinsecration of remembrance. Or he would pause on random country walks; sit on the path side, gazing over the sea on the mountains of Eimeo; and dip into the Aeneid, seeking sortes. And if the oracle (as is the way of oracles) replied with no very certain nor encouraging voice, visions of England at least would throng upon the exile's memory: the busy schoolroom, the green playing-fields, holidays at home, and the perennial roar of London, and the fireside, and the white head of his father. For it is the destiny of those grave, restrained and classic writers, with whom we make enforced and often painful acquaintanceship at school, to pass into the blood and become native in the memory; so that a phrase of Virgil speaks not so much of Mantua or Augustus, but of English places and the student's own irrevocable youth.

Robert Herrick was the son of an intelligent, active, and ambitious man, small partner in a considerable London house.

Hopes were conceived of the boy; he was sent to a good school, gained there an Oxford scholarship, and proceeded in course to the Western University. With all his talent and taste (and he had much of both) Robert was deficient in consistency and intellectual manhood, wandered in bypaths of study, worked at music or at metaphysics when he should have been at Greek, and took at last a paltry degree. Almost at the same time, the London house was disastrously wound up; Mr Herrick must begin the world again as a clerk in a strange office, and Robert relinquish his ambitions and accept with gratitude a career that he detested and despised. He had no head for figures, no interest in affairs, detested the constraint of hours, and despised the aims and the success of merchants. To grow rich was none of his ambitions; rather to do well. A worse or a more bold young man would have refused the destiny; perhaps tried his future with his pen; perhaps enlisted. Robert, more prudent, possibly more timid, consented to embrace that way of life in which he could most readily assist his family. But he did so with a mind divided; fled the neighbourhood of former comrades; and chose, out of several positions placed at his disposal, a clerkship in New York.

同类推荐
  • 阿难七梦经

    阿难七梦经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 钝吟杂录

    钝吟杂录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 赠别

    赠别

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 戴施两案纪略

    戴施两案纪略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 续仙传

    续仙传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 佛说持明藏八大总持王经

    佛说持明藏八大总持王经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 毒指乾坤

    毒指乾坤

    你有无上神通,我却有毒门法诀。纵使你修为通天,也难逃我千毒蚀心。天道不仁,我便诛天。仙道不义,我欲毒仙。即使天下与我一人为敌,也要一手毒指天下。仰问毒修大道,是否缥缈?
  • 挽留一抹彩虹

    挽留一抹彩虹

    刘懿曾经是一名万众瞩目的学霸,然而在奋笔读书而对社会生活漠不关心的相互矛盾下,这位所谓的学霸开始不受社会的接济,甚至受到了社会的排斥,直到他遇见了看似“社会”与“成熟”的夏茉之后,他的生活开始改变了……
  • 璃越

    璃越

    陌生的城市中,我寻了他两年,终于在人海之中寻得了他,只是花不再是花,光不再是光,他不再是他。——阿越,我寻了你五年,为什么让我找到的灰色的你?——阿越,你是我世界的光,唯一的光,所以我不会让你消失。——阿越,别一个人躲在角落里哭泣,我在你身边。——阿越,上辈子,你是我的所有,这辈子,我来做你的依靠可好?
  • tfboys之王俊凯遇见你

    tfboys之王俊凯遇见你

    希望大家喜欢吧,毕竟是我第一次写小说,希望大家多多提建议。
  • 重生之帝凰天下

    重生之帝凰天下

    堂堂一全国武术女冠军,竟然一场坠机就这样结束了她的生命?上天眷顾灵魂寄体,犀利的凤眸睁开,这是一个弱肉强食血染黄土的异界大陆。一朝被退婚一朝遇佳人,真是应了那句多谢当初不娶之恩啊!天穹之上,黄泉之下,面临的是扑朔迷离的身份,拼的是斗智斗勇的战争!曾经的刚毅化为铁骨柔情的眷恋。曾经的淡漠化为心肋最柔软的缠绵。风云天下剑指苍穹,且看如何来称霸这新天下!
  • 宇宙开发商

    宇宙开发商

    公元2333年,地球资源开发殆尽,各国将目标指向宇宙但碍于技术限制,开发工作十分缓慢……扫厕所的李顺利偶得宇宙开发智能空间,从此逆袭,走上了开发宇宙的道路!各大星球矿藏丰富,黄金白银以及稀有金属还有石油……啧啧啧啧,全是钱啊!开公司,泡妹妹,搞军队……皇帝一般的生活!“老子就是第一个宇宙开发商!都跟我混吧!什么?火星已被米国占领?老子不承认!”宇宙开发商互动群:519343726
  • 盛世嫡宠,逆天废材妃

    盛世嫡宠,逆天废材妃

    都说她傻,还是个废物,人人都可欺辱,那已经是过去式了……身为二十一世纪的她还没谈过恋爱就给莫名其妙的穿了,那是很郁闷的,需要狠狠的发泄。她不喜欢受制于人,那便只好让人受制于她了,她不爽被人欺负,所以那些欺负她的,势必都要一一讨回来的。她不是什么坏人,但也不是什么好人,人不犯我,我不犯人,人若犯我,必而诛之。谁说她是废材的?她偏偏要让所有人知道,她才是天才。她不是软柿子,她是仙人球,想捏她,扎死你个王八蛋。什么正邪?谈个恋爱还要有人阻止,闹你个天翻地覆人仰马翻。我命由我不由天,天要弄我,我便戳你满身窟窿。说她无情,却可同他同生共死他清雅高贵,身份神秘,却拥有深不可测的力量,天下之大他只护她一人,
  • 重生之神级抽奖

    重生之神级抽奖

    叶枫重生了,不过不是在地球,并且还带着他的神级抽奖系统。重生到了一个与地球相似度百分之九十以上的平行位面,重生之前的一个屌丝青年靠着他阎王大哥给的重生福利华丽转身。二傻:报告宿主,前方有人装逼。叶枫:哪里哪里,等我抽块板砖,一板砖拍死丫的!!.....二傻:报告宿主,前方发现高能,有美女,是否搭讪!!
  • 武道天途

    武道天途

    一段离奇的穿越,一卷惊世的秘典,带着一个懵懂的少年来到了神秘的异界大陆,一段血仇背后居然隐藏着惊天的阴谋,所有人都被“天”算计了,而他却算计了“天”。天无道,则逆天!